A graphic of a utility room containing a washing machine, dryer, sink and laundry
Episode 39 – Organising a Utility Room

In this podcast, Lesley and Ingrid explore how critical a utility room can be to keep the rest of the home organised. If you are lucky enough to have a utility room, it's vital to keep it clutter free, organised, labelled and accessible so it functions well for you. Utility rooms can easily become dumping grounds if not looked after carefully.
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Transcript of this podcast episode
Intro  0:07  
Welcome to today's episode of The Declutter Hub Podcast, your channel for super easy, no nonsense advice on how to declutter and organise your home. Please welcome your host professional organisers, Ingrid Johnson, and Lesley Spellman.

Ingrid  0:26  
Hello, and welcome listeners to Episode 39 of the Declutter Hub Podcast.

Lesley  0:31  
I'm Ingrid. And I'm Lesley.

Ingrid  0:33  
If you have collateral and want to sort it out, this is to show for you. In today's episode, Lesley and I are talking about utility room organising. Now, Lesley, and I describe the utility room as the place where the washing machine or dryer, a sink, and a couple of cupboards are to put some stuff in, it's quite often next to the kitchen and as a door to the garden. Now, Lesley, I Don't Know How about how about you, but I find just about everything in the utility room.

Lesley  1:02  
And I think some people are luckier than others in terms of the size, the shape and size of the utility room and where it is, you know, I mean, the scenario that you just described there, where it's directly off the kitchen, you know, to the garden. And that's like the ideal scenario, really. But for some people, they've got utility rooms in the basement, some people have got huge utility rooms, some people have barely got a cupboard, you know, so there's loads and loads of different types of utility room, and we just couldn't describe how to organise one because there are so many different shapes and sizes. So we're going to talk more about the kind of mistakes that people make in there. And what we see all the time, aren't we? Yeah, well, I

Ingrid  1:38  
have no utility room at all. So I'm always very, very jealous if I come into my class houses, and they actually have a utility room doesn't even matter what size, if they have a shepherd room where there's a washing machine and or a dry, I'm like, Oh, you're so lucky, I want one.

Lesley  1:56  
And the thing, the reason why, the reason why it is such a privilege really is because you can keep all of that washing in a different room, and it doesn't impact on the rest of the house. And so it really is a big deal. Because the two things that make an impact in a house more than anything else is laundry and paperwork. Those are the two biggest contributors towards clutter. So we can get those two things under control. We're like halfway there, aren't we? And you know, having you know, it's harder if your washing machine and your dryers in your kitchen, it's harder, you know, there's no doubt about it. And, you know, even if it's in a basement, it's got to function really well, because you've got you can't have it being a barrier all the time. I mean, that's, that's the problem. So the ideal scenario is definitely that utility room sitting next to the kitchen.

Ingrid  2:41  
Absolutely. I actually did a utility room last week. And I just love Oh, I love doing utility rooms, because I think it's a bit of a treasure hunt, you know? And also, there's lots of weird stuff in there. And you think how did it end up in here, but I liked that kind of thing.

Lesley  2:59  
And so you know, the kinds of things that for me should be in a utility room. Obviously, you need your laundry products in there, don't you? You know, the one thing that I wanted to say about that, you know, well, we'll talk about the mistakes that people make. People sometimes give away too much space in the home, too well cleaning products in particular, as if a cleaning product is miraculously going to clean your house for you to start definitely that psychology isn't right. It's just buying nice cleaning products and then I'm going to my hobby is going to be bright and shiny. But as a psychology

Ingrid  3:35  
I know you find cupboards full of creepy stuff you think when was the last time they've actually dusted

Lesley  3:42  
that set and so there's a psychology, you know, in the same way that buying a decluttering book makes you think that you're gonna declutter and know all of those things, you know, something that's gonna be, you know, your hope that it's going to take you to that next level. And sometimes it doesn't. And sometimes if it doesn't, then you need to let go of it. And I think laundry products and there are some people that are very, very particular with laundry. Yeah, so for me, washing powder, that's it. I don't even use fabric conditioner. And so I've just got washing powder, and I might have not got enough that I've got nothing else. That's all I use. You know what I mean? So mine's very small. I've got some pegs got some washing powder. I think I've got one thing of you know, this stuff that you put through if you want to take the grey out or something, whatever that's called varnish or something like that oxy something caught my OxiClean or something, but I never use it anyway. So that's all I've got, but some people have got technical washed off, hand washed off, you know, sterilising thing, ironing water over blah, blah. So some people have got 2025 things and so that's fine if you are very particular about your washing and you're using those things all the time. But I suppose what I want to say is be really honest with yourself as to whether you are using those or whether these are just things that you bought as a one off, and you've never gone back to them in the last two or three years. Yeah,

Ingrid  5:00  
yeah, true. I mean, I think it is for me as well I've washing powder. And then I have this specialty. I don't know how to call now, but it's like it kills like bacteria like underarm. So if you've got a lot of shirts that were very close to your arms and it's when you sweat a little bit it kills like the bacteria so it's really helpful. Okay, but I don't use fabric conditioner either. I don't have a dryer so I don't have I only have a washing machine so I have to hang out everything. But I have a bottle for woollens. If I wash my woollens if like a hand wash woollen stuff, and I think I've got a bottle it for like to keep black stuff black, but I'm like wondering why I forgot that, because I just do a dark wash with the washing powder. But I do have some vanishing case, I've got stains in my clothes. But you see the Earth, you know, anything, different washing products, and it's like, it's just ultimate too much. And it kind of goes out of control.

Lesley  5:57  
Most like anything else, when we're talking about makeup and sort of retail therapy with makeup and a podcast a couple of weeks ago, when we were cleaning products, and washing products and laundry products. And the same thing, you know, we get carried away with the kind of, that's going to make me smell nicer or look nicer, or it's going to maintain my clothes for longer or something like that. So we get carried away. But I guess the reason why I'm saying it is that sometimes there's so much space taken up in the utility room with laundry products, that there's not space for all the things that could be in there. So keep it tight as you can, you know, don't if you've not got loads of space, in a utility room don't bulk buy, you know that one of the biggest things that we see all the time, is people buy in 36, toilet rolls, and 17, kitchen towels and all that and these massive things of washing powder, which is brilliant for saving money, but it doesn't help you on the clutter. So you have to balance that up, you know, so I'm not saying Say goodbye to the money. And obviously if it's more cost effective to do that, then that's a factor that you need to think about. But equally you need to think about what's more important to me saving two pounds, or having having six toilet rolls on hand and saving, you know, just I mean, yeah, truth walked by. And because that's where it lands, you know, the utility room is often where that bulk buy in lands.

Ingrid  7:13  
Yeah, so true. And also then immediately your accessibility is compromised. Because you've got if you are lucky enough enough to have a couple of competing utility room as well, if you if you bought by 36 toilet rolls, it has to live somewhere. And then if it ends up in front of cameras, and you can't open the cabinets anymore, it immediately becomes tricky.

Lesley  7:33  
Yeah, because I think utility room space says you know, if I'm thinking about a sort of modern home where you literally go in and you've got one run of cupboards with a washing machine or dryer, maybe a sink over, and you might have one corner cupboard like a tall cupboard or something like that, which are brilliant. But often a lot of people have got the washing baskets and the washing in front of those or a clothes made and or an iron in your ironing board and iron and things like that. And all of a sudden, as soon as there's, there's something that's stopping you from getting into the cupboard that you need to go into. What that then means is that you dump stuff in front of it. So if you can't get in that cupboard, you put stuff on the side, ready to put it in the cupboard later when it is accessible. And that's it. And it's the same everywhere in the house. As soon as there's a barrier stopping you from doing something, that's when the clutter starts to build, because you can't put it away. And so and the utility room is a case in point in that isn't it Ingrid? Yeah. So keep keep things clean in there. You know, make sure things are smaller, make sure that you've got accessibility. So utilise every bit of available space that you've got in there. So if you if you you know, if you've got your ironing board and your iron in there, and you can put something upon a wall, put one of those ironing board kind of hanging things. What are they called ironing board hangers

Ingrid  8:46  
holder like a holder. So you can have your your hand your ironing board and on the top you can clipping your iron.

Lesley  8:52  
Yeah, but I guess you can only do that if you haven't got a steam. Yeah, iron. You know, if you've got steam iron, that's different thing. What do the constant mines done, I mean, all those big ones with the containers underneath them. Yeah, so you can't do that. But just be really clever with the space that's in the utility room and use every bit of available space that you've got accessibility into the cupboards that you have got

Ingrid  9:14  
it true. And if you if you're lucky enough to beside your cupboard have a tiny little knock there as well. Maybe you can slide your ironing board in. Or maybe you can put a little a little ladder there so you can reach higher places. And a little stepladder is really handy to have in a utility room as well. And maybe even though you have to hang your ironing board in front of it, because you use the leather less frequently but still it's there which is handy.

Lesley  9:39  
Yeah, it is. And I'll tell you what, what's in those little nooks and crannies at the side of cupboards all the time taking up valuable space. Can we have bags and bags for life and bags for life loads, often roads and stuff because they still fit quite nicely down into those little increments. And so all of a sudden we're allowed to have 75 disintegrating carry bags and 57 bags for life but we're never going to you know, in our car. So be really be really, if there's one thing in life that you need to go easy on it's bags for itself, because they absolutely breed so. So yeah, bags, don't stuff them down the side, use that little space down the side of your cupboards and things like that for ironing boards and things like that be sensible with it.

Ingrid  10:23  
And if you do have a cupboard where you can put your ironing your iron in, and maybe even a couple of empty hangers, and I actually created the space where also the starch was and the ionised water and or the how do you call that deionized? Water, whatever it's called everything together. So it's easier than you don't have to rummage through other cupboards because all your stuff for your ironing age together.

Lesley  10:45  
We did have we did have a little grammar sort of didn't wait a few weeks ago where I was trying to teach you how to say iron. Say I n in the proper way. Go on give it a go. Ingrid. Is she still caught myself is that I might not i when it's i and you've got to say I'll do it again. But this this podcast, you've got to say in the right way,

Ingrid  11:11  
iron. Well,

Lesley  11:15  
does that really mean? It's anti Dutch, isn't it?

Ingrid  11:18  
It's fine. It's fine. I'm not worried about it. You know exactly. That's what it's all about Lesley, you know, I think my listeners know what we're talking about. But it makes me laugh. It's fine. It's fine. So can we then please talk about other little bits and bobs because I actually are I like I said I didn't utility room last week. And actually ended up taking we there were a couple of cupboards there. So we just took everything out and just kind of went let's start from scratch here. And we had some nice boxes and we containerized some of the bits, we labelled two boxes, we labelled two shells. And we actually found out it was the perfect place to put some batteries, lightbulbs. Shoe cleaning stuff a mending kids kind of all the things you expect to be in a utility room. Actually, it was space in the cupboards. But because the cupboards were messy, it just needed some some going through and some sorting out and actually if lots more fitted in that were originally thought so all the stuff you would think that you should look into this room, actually where there is lovely.

Lesley  12:28  
Yeah, and that's exactly the kind of stuff that should be in a utility room. You know, the perfect utility and for me is washing machine dryer, hanging rail. I mean, I love a rail over if you've got spares quite often a utility rooms, the makeup of utilitarian particularly in modern houses is space for washing machine space for dryer with a work surface over top of it in the corner. And then if you've got space and to put a rail above, then that's absolutely fantastic. Because it you know, if you do use a dryer like I do, and you can hang stuff straight out the dryer, and it cuts right down on your own and, yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely. It's just, it's all just all about compromise really in the utility room and I'm doing it I'm same as you I am doing a full house declutter at the moment. And I'm more or less at the end of it. We've just got the garage, the utility room and a tiny bit of the kitchen left. And so whenever I'm working, I'm always looking at the next session and what that's going to look like because I'm sure you are. And so when I was there last week, I was looking at the utility room. And what I saw in there is quite a small condensed utility room, but it could be fantastic. But a lot of the space is taken up by a very beautiful wine cooler. And I was like, Oh, that wine cool is kind of almost stopping, you're doing your laundry in there, which is really important. And so I was actually having a chat, because that's a tough one, isn't it? Because a wine cooler is a very aspirational thing to have in a home, isn't it? It can't fit it in the kitchen. So it's kind of like, well, how do you feel about the the garage? And it was like, oh, that's radical. But if I can, but what I can see, what I can see is that the wind is not getting drunk all the time. But the laundry is being done every day. So what that's where the compromise kicks in. You know that bottom line is the wine cooler should never have been bought in the first place. But it is. And so now we've got to say what's more important is the wine cooler moment. I mean, absolutely. The wine cooler may be more important. But even for me, I think getting the laundry under control will take the place of a wine cooler. So it's just you know, it's things like that sometimes you just have to know that you've made a mistake and something that you've bought and try and find a different place for it.

Ingrid  14:34  
Yeah, yeah. So true. I mean, I think it's also be being really realistic about what is in the utility room. I mean, if you have a shed or a garage, maybe the tools that are now living in you utility room can actually go into your shed or garage. And of course you want your electric screwdriver not in a damp gear Garage, maybe you can find the little cupboard where that kind of stuff lives. But just because it's now in there doesn't mean it has to stay in there. You have to be creative and think where else can I put items, because in the end, you want the utility room to look appealing, because she spent a lot of time in there, that's laundry takes up quite a lot of time.

Lesley  15:22  
The thing is with everything, and you just have to think about what would you do as an alternative? So quite often, so that screwdriver or that toolbox, or whatever that you're talking about? It's often it's not really often it's not even a toolbox, it's just some random tools that have been left because they'd been brought into the house. And they've not found the way back out again. Yeah, but even if it were, if their rightful place, you know, we always talk about finding a place for everything and putting everything back in its place. If you need a screwdriver, and it's not in a utility room, and it's in your carriage, you're gonna go to your garage and get it because you need it do something. And so that's where again, that's where compromise kicks in. And if that means that you can have your batteries and bulbs in your utility room or your shoe cleaning kit or something like that, and that's a better solution. So where you are compromised on space, have to think you have to be very inventive, don't you? Yeah.

Ingrid  16:11  
And I think also, what I'd like to add as well here is that if you have, for example, a separate utility room, but also a cupboard under the sink, make sure you don't double up on loads of different items. For example, I the utility room, I did, I also did the kitchen the week before. And we because we hadn't done the utility room yet, I didn't know yet where everything was living. So I created in the kitchen, a shelf where we put some light bulbs and some tools and some batteries and things like that. But then when the utility room A week later, I thought, oh, wait a minute, this is a much better place. So we actually ended up swapping a few things back and forwards. So all the stock is also together, because otherwise you'd keep overbuying because it was in different places we found out we had lots of cleaning items, but vases had to then live in three different places. So actually, when she then needed a vase, it was immediately like, oh, gosh, where it's living. So we've now decided to put some of the cleaning stuff under the sink, and put devices downstairs in the utility room under the sink. So at least they're all in the same place and all the batteries came down. And then there was space upstairs in the kitchen to put some other beds. So sometimes when you do I'm telling you this listeners is because sometimes you do have to put stuff somewhere, temporarily somewhere, although it's not the final home yet, because you haven't decluttered another space. So don't panic and think oh my gosh, my house is still I'm still decluttering and decluttering. It's just because sometimes you need to do somewhere else first, and then you realise, ah, this stuff and that other cupboard upstairs now can come down and then it starts to all come together.

Lesley  17:57  
And that's why ultimately we want to do a whole house declutter, don't we because, you know, we can see we can get a rightful place for absolutely everything. And so you know, it takes a while before you get there particularly in those in those rooms where they kind of blend into different ones, utility rooms, kitchens, Understairs cupboards, where you have to be inventive about the space and want to talk about vases. They're difficult aren't liberals, it's a store, you know, I mean, because there's so we keep them, don't we we get them with flowers these days. They're big, they're bulky, we need different sizes, we inherit them, you know, they're always quite tricky, aren't they, but you need to find a good place for them, or you need to be ruthless with them. You know, it was I working with the I was working with somebody the other day, and we were really quite ruthless with the bars. Because sometimes you need to be because those are the kinds of things again, that will take up loads and loads of valuable spaces. And a lot of people only put bring flowers into the house, you know, once every couple of months or, you know, I mean, some people have vases every week, but some people don't. And you know, and again, biases are quite difficult cuz you always think they're gonna come in, don't use one of those things, or they'll come in and I'll always use them, but sometimes you don't. So don't be afraid of being ruthless with your vases. I

Ingrid  19:06  
think also worth mentioning is that you do if you do have a lot of pets, dogs or cats, anything like that. Maybe some of the pet food and accessories ends up in your utility room, because you don't want to have it in your kitchen. So also be smart and see if you can assign a cupboard or an area where it all lives together. And if you don't have room for a massive 10 kilo bag of cat food or dog food, then just buy a smaller version. It's the same as buying gigantic packages of washing powder if you if they can't fit in your cupboard. They start to live on top and on your flat surface and then it becomes annoying and everything else becomes a dumping ground as well.

Lesley  19:49  
Yeah, that's it. That's the That's the message really, I think isn't it for utility room. It can so easily become a dumping ground and you have to be quite on top of it to do to stop that from happening. So the things that we've spoken about the English spoken about, in particular containerized things we talked about things like batteries, bulbs, and candles, which tend to be the three things and shoe cleaning stuff, then they tend to be in a utility room, but containerize them, keep them clean, make sure that all of our light bulbs because like, the problem is with light bulbs, they change so much fashions have changed the type of light bulbs that we use change. And it's quite a tricky job to go around and look at every single electrical thing that you've got in your house that needs a bulb and say, Does this bulb say would tell you, but it's useful because otherwise those bulbs? How many people you know, Ingrid with clients? I've got massive, massive boxes full of bulbs. Yes. Now, you know. Yeah. You don't Yeah. And actually, they probably might be able to use 10 or 12 of those because the ones that they're using are all gone. Yeah. So it's the ones that are left behind from years and years ago. But again, light bulbs, the psychology is that they're quite expensive, particularly now they're hellishly expensive, aren't they? You know, and so, think about your light bulbs. Think about your batteries, have I actually got something that I'm gonna put we bring light bulbs from one house to another do not mean don't weigh Yeah, so containerize them, label them up. Give some of them away to other people who've got if you don't use. If you've not got small screw, you've only got bayonets, pass them on to somebody else who can use them. And you'll feel good that you can send them to the charity shops and like most of the charity shop just mean that they're perfectly happy to get things like that. So it's just about being you do have to be ruthless. Don't you keep it very keen in the utility room.

Ingrid  21:40  
And I'll tell you something funny, Lesley. I had. I had never seen a bay net before living here in the UK. I think it was funny because I was like, what,

Lesley  21:50  
there's something wrong with this light bulb. There's something wrong, because they're like a British thing, then.

Ingrid  21:56  
I think so because we've only got like the screw topi thingies. So I was like, What is this lipid? And they're like, it's a bayonet, I'm like, I've got no idea what that is.

Lesley  22:07  
I wonder if they have bayonets in the States?

Ingrid  22:09  
I really can't remember. Okay, so if anybody's listening from the US and wants to enlighten us, please go to our Facebook and let us know. Because we're actually very interested to know, but honestly, in Holland, we only had ever had had the screw top one. So I've never seen that. So I just thought this thing was broken.

Lesley  22:29  
I'm like, throwing out all the bayonets now that could go that can go and give me anyway.

Ingrid  22:41  
To end this podcast on the light notes, I

Lesley  22:43  
thought that was quite funny. So that is it. I think.

Ingrid  22:47  
I think so too. You know, I think so too. I mean, we can rattle off 40 Other things we find in utility rooms. But I think we've also done a podcast about the Understairs cupboard. So if you're interested in that, have a listen to that podcast. If there's stuff living in your utility room that shouldn't live in there, just find another home for it. But if it makes sense for something to live in the utility room, make room for it and see if you can actually make your other stuff a little bit smaller and declutter some stuff that you no longer need. So let's see anything else before we close this episode?

Lesley  23:22  
Nothing for me. Okay, I belong to roomed out.

Ingrid  23:25  
Okay, well, listeners, we're all utility rooms out. So that's it for this episode. We hope you've all enjoyed listening and are inspired to take action. So are you going to declutter your utility room? Show us some before and after photos? We love seeing those on our declutter hub community, our Facebook group, so definitely share if you feel inspired. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen today. If you'd like more tips and advice please follow us on social media. We are on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook as at declutter hub, and have a lively supportive Facebook group where we chat all things clutter, you can search for the declutter hub community, and we'd love to see you there. If you don't want to miss the next weekly episode, subscribe to the declutter hub podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher, and it will pop into your notifications each Friday. See you next time.

Outro  24:17  
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of The declutter hub podcast. Check out declutterhub.com For more inspiration, and don't forget to tune in next week.
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